The Klutz

Chapter Three: A Debt To Pay

I slowly turn around praying that it was not who I thought it was. But sadly it was. Mark Atlin was furiously pacing his hands balled in fists. I don't know what to say. Oh my gosh his face is so red he looks so angry.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" He asks in frustration.

I'm speechless. What the heck am I supposed to say.

"Well, I uh just tapped it........and it well.....it was really nice.....it just fell over," I say. I'm really scared of him right now.

"IT JUST FELL OVER? HOW COULD A SMALL GIRL LIKE YOU KNOCK OVER A SUPER HEAVY BIKE??" He says still pacing and yelling.

"Here, here it's okay," I say and I walk over to the bike and try to lift it. Oh my gosh it's really heavy. I can't lift it but while I'm trying to lift it. I cut myself on a loose piece of metal across my hand.

"No, no you can't,"he says and lift it up himself.

He looks over on the other side of the bike and there is a huge dent in it."My father is going to kill me your paying for the repair!" He says angrily.

Crap. I can't pay for that. I don't have any money. The most money I have ever made is for cleaning. And that's only like 20 bucks. What can I do? My dad doesn't have any money! He can hardly pay rent or for anything we have! What the hell am I going to do???!??

"Please no," I say,"I'll work it off. I'll do whatever. I can't pay for that. That's at least 500 bucks. Please I'll clean your house that how I make money. Please I'll work it off," I plead still clutching my hand.

He glares at me for a while. I can tell that he's trying to decide. Anger flashes across his face but also uncertainty. I really hope he's not too angry.

"Fine," he says,"I'll call you for a time this weekend. You'll show up at my house and start work," he turns to walk away.

Good. I think good. He'll let me work it off. Then something flashes through my head,"Mark," I call after him.

"What?" He snaps.

"I don't have a phone."

He rolls his eyes which makes me a little mad.

"Fine just show up at my house. 10 a.m. Saturday morning. Address is 7200 Washington Dr."

"Got it," I say I try a weak smile but he just rolls his eyes and walks away.

*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•

Thankfully yesterday was Friday so I only had to survive one day of school for the week. I woke up at 9:30 A.M and got ready quickly. I quickly put my hair in a pony tail with the same white ribbon. I put on a blue v-neck t-shirt and some blue jeans with my sneakers and I was ready to go.

I told Dad that I was helping out a friend clean his house and that I'd probably be doing that for a while. He didn't think twice about it he just said okay and didn't worry about it. We found out where Mark's house was and realized that it was too far to walk so dad offered to take me this one time but the rest of the times I'd be taking the bus.

I never got my drivers liscence. It cost more money than we could spend at the time so I'm waiting to take Drivers Ed. when I have enough money to buy a car.

"Did you find a job yesterday?" I ask Dad.

"No not yet,Pumpkin," he says with a small smile," but there's a lot of opportunity out here I'll find something." He says.

I nod and by the time he finished. We were basically there. I stepped out of the car and Dad drove away fast. I stood in his gigantic driveway for a little bit just staring.